Saturday, December 12, 2009

UTUSAN MALAYSIA – CEASE THIS NAME CALLING!

I am appalled at a recent writing in Utusan Malaysia over their use of the word 'keling' in reference to the Malaysian Indians, and truly appreciates a note of rebuke to the use of such a word by my colleague Lt Col Mohd Idris Hassan (Retired) published in Malaysiakini dated December 11, 2009. Like my colleague, I too take serious offence at Utusan Malaysia for using the word 'keling' in reference to Indians, who like we Malays would be offended if we were called 'belacans'.

It is quite apparent that Utusan Malaysia is nothing more than trying to stroke the Malay sentiment against other non Malay Malaysians, and this is trading in dangerous waters. I believe the writer of the article is suffering from some serious deficiency syndrome of the brain; hence he cannot think nor write logically and sensibly. He need to immerse his head in mud so that he can have a better understanding of the Malaysian society, and if he still fails to understand, he ought to be thrown to the lions.

While PM Najib is trying hard to propagate to Malaysians the '1 Malaysia' concept, this UMNO owned paper tries to undo what all PM Najib is trying to do. It is now clear to my mind that Utusan Malaysia writers are simply ignorant, insensitive and have a muddled understanding of what a Malaysian society is all about. It is people like them who are the instigators and trouble makers, and it will also be them who will flee out of this country first, when there is disquiet in this country.

As a retired soldier and similarly that of my colleague Lt Col Mohd Idris, we have had many Indian soldiers who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the country. Have you heard of Capt Chandran who was posthumously awarded the nation's second highest gallantry award for his exploits during the Malaysian Insurgency. I have had many Malaysian Indian officers and soldiers serving me in Cambodia during the troubled period in 1992/93, and they never once showed signs of being disloyal to me. Besides the Indian soldiers, I had many other Malaysians of different ethnicity (Ibans, Kadazans, Muruts, Kelabits, Dusuns), but I can tell you all Utusan Malaysia writers that we were one.........Malaysians. There were no name calling. We ate, lived, worked and played together like one big family. We soldiers can show you that we practiced 1 Malaysia long before PM Najib ever thought of it.

I am indeed disgusted at what Utusan Malaysia has written, and to prove my anger at them, I have ceased buying Utusan since I retired from the Armed Forces in 1998.

43 comments:

At this time of our nation's development the very thought that we have a national newspaper engaging in this sort of degrading comments of an entire community is absolutely disgusting.And even more astonishing is that no UMNO leader has come forward to admonish the author and the newspaper.Where do we go from here?

Another PR gimmick to support the UMNO Putras. They will use all those tools left to gunner support. Thats all they are left with. How come for such racist remarks no concrete commmnets being given. The country is heading backwards, indeed way back now.

Dear Dato'Being of Indian origin, I am not ashamed of my heritage. I am proud to be a 3rd generation Malaysian who has served the nation. Insyallah, a son of mine will be the fourth generation to serve my king and country. To those who speak and write and you are or never were in the service please "SHUT UP".

I am a bit slow, but I did not quite get what Maj. Ramachandran meant in the last part of his comment.Is it a rebuke to the bloger, and to all those who were not in Military service? The issue here is not wether you are proud or ashamed of your heritage.It is about degrading comments of an entire community by a national newspaper as said by Bernard!!!!!

I think you have not been fair to Utusan Malaysia,just because one stupid word Keling you are blaming the whole newspaper.You have forgotten that this newspaper is one of the pioneer newspaper that stood and defend this country during hardtimes especially in fighting the rights of the poor BUMIPUTRAS.

May I ask you did you ever read a Chinese or an Indian Newspaper ? I think you never read ,what the Chinese newspaper and Indian newspaper labelled the Malays and the Bumiputra is nothing to what Utusan Malaysia said.Please read Dr Ridzuan Tees blog and you will get the answer.

I think aah has a point. Utusan Malaysia been out there since you were still a very small kid (perhaps)..and I was still nowhere in this world. This newspaper (earlier written in Jawi) played a very significant role to the nation building of our beloved country. Utusan Malaysia is not to be blamed entirely for the use of the word 'keling'. Its the writer.

Screw him!

And I totally agreed with aah that we should also look into what the Chinese and Indian newspaper writes about us - Malays.

Saudara, Hang Jebat with respect I think you got this wrong "Bagi yang Benggali kami panggil Bai. Tak ada apa-apa pun."Firstly there were no Benggalis then. I suppose you must be must be refering to Punjabie Sikhs.(Singh) If that is so than calling them Bai till this day is in fact very polite as Bai means brother in punjabi. So of course it is Tak ada apa-apa pun.We are not talking about adressing your school mates Keling as something normal in the seventies, although I believe even then you just could not call any Indian in the street a Keling without being soundly rebuked by him. The crux of the problem now is that the Indians to day don't like it.So why call them Keling and get them worked up and angry.I am sure the Malays would not want to be called "Blachan" which the Indians used in retaliation to being called Keling. The Utusan should use it recorces to connect all races not divide them.To day we need unity of all races like never before. So God help us.

"May I ask you did you ever read a Chinese or an Indian Newspaper? I think you never read, what the Chinese newspaper and Indian newspaper labelled the Malays and the Bumiputra is nothing to what Utusan Malaysia said."

Lt Muda Salutes to you. Very positive indeed. We wish, trust & hope there are more, much much more like you coming up to see a United Malaysia / a Malaysia United or a Bangsa Malaysia, irrespective of race, religion, creed, custom, traditonal or cultural background mixing, moving around and working together for the good of this country ... Malaysia. MALAYSIA TRULY MALYSIA!!

aah!! You do not have any destination for the good of this country or for the future or our children to live together as one. If you are not able to look at things good, well and postive you need not have to create anymore of those nuts that you have. Just Buzz Off Man!!

Ok about the Sikh things..i maybe wrong. Fine. Most of the Indians (those days) and their descendants (today) were originally came from a place (or state) called Kalinga. The word 'keling' was just a short form of it. Then again, I might be wrong here. I don't know. Somebody told me this.

I personally don't like this name calling also. But on the other hand, the Indians here should be proud of the word 'keling' 'coz in my hometown Melaka there were places called Tg Keling and Kg Keling. Do we need to change that too? There's a mosque named Masjid Kg Keling too! The word 'keling' is highly regarded actually. Don't you think so?

Lt Muda,

What I am trying to say is the bond between us was much much better those days than today. If the Indians don't like the word, fine. So be it. Its okay with me. Today, I don't call them 'keling' anymore. I always use the contemporary words like 'Bro' or 'Boss' to call those I don't know.

I hope you are not another Utusan reporter trying to spin story here. I am a chinese and my father/auntie reads chinese newspapers and not that I know off there are name calling on the Indians nor Malays.

If there were, many of them would be under ISA. A Sin Chew reporter was under ISA just because she reported about Ahmad Ismail's racist remark. Can you imagine chinese reporters write something bad a "malay"?

Dear Komando,I read your writing with interest and support your ideas and statement.It is a political war outright between the ruling party and the opposition so to say.Do not be suck into this political game or hidden agenda of a group of desperado politician and their cronies.The cause to justify the mean ,this is what absolutely happening now.This particular rotten newspaper is being utilise to create hatred between the races in order to create uncertainty,threat and feeling of insecure amongst them. I dont have a crystal ball neither I am a genious to interprate but the game or manouvre is the same with what have been done before by the old senile Mamak (who claim himself Melayu)and rule the land for 22 years.He flourish and prosper due to the Malays stupidity.Do you realise that the Mamak race is much better than the real and true Melayu in this country.Look around you and think..............from business giant,to Ministerial post,Mydin,Jakel,etc.Who did all these ? Who changes all the Mamak My Kad from A/L to Bin in their name. The Melayus in UMNO could not identify and differentiate between black and brown skin in their organisation.Why cant they eliminate and get rid of these trouble makers from their peers (this fake Melayus) and replace them with the true Melayus whose roots originate from the Malay Archipelago and not the Melayus by Law who originate from the Indian subcontinent.They should be declassified as persona non grata to UMNO and must be driven to join KIMMA (Kesatuan India Muslim Malaysia).Baru tu le aku rasa Melayu ni jadi bangsa yang Merdeka dan berdaulat dan tidak menjadi bangsa yang tercemar oleh keturunan mamak ni..........apa macam betul tak.

If u a Melayu goes and reside in England and be a British citizen do you think that you will be called ENGLISHMAN and given the right and status as BRIT?

Just for a moment, can we all put race, religion, skin colour and back ground to a side and think like a MALAYSIAN. (I can bet you all, you ppl can never do that, just because we are brought up like that).

fROM wALI-Muar: The cause to justify the mean ,this is what absolutely happening now.This particular rotten newspaper is being utilize to create hatred between the races in order to create uncertainty,threat and feeling of insecure amongst them.

YES, they were all sent to England and USA to learn about strategy, intel and spy work!

Sudara Commando,With respect If I may say that Mamak is not actually a clan. In it's orginal form among Indian Muslims it is a refrence to paternal uncle or (Loosely) any uncle is called "mamak" In Hundistani an uncle is refered as "Mama" If you want to know "Kutty" is a clan and so is "Dawood"to name a few.

Berkenaan Dr Ridhuan Tee, saya tidak setuju dengan pendapat dia. He is only talking with his "book knowledge" without experience. He should visit some African Countries, Europe and the Middle East. Mungkin ada yang berlainan pendapat dari saya. That is your personal view and this is my personal view.

Salutations to all,I stumbled onto this blog whilst searching for something else. Reading thru almost make my eyes moist. I realise there are more right thinking Malaysians then I thought possible. It gives me hope. I can identify with some of the recollections of lost friends from days of old. Keep up the good work Dato.IMHO, I have come to believe that this particular paper is sometimes called upon to stir things up by either spreading fear or threathen retribution. You see, if we are left alone to become Malaysian like before and better Malaysian for the future, all the race based parties may become irrelevant.It is not coincident that we see the results of the last election with the popularity of the medium we are on now. It has proven to be difficult to censor. Though they now have full timer ghost writers scouring this medium to rebutt negative (to them) writings.